Our Trip to Cheeseland!

i was so excited to go to wisconsin with phillip. i'd been thinking about it for over a month. back in april when his mom asked us when we'd be coming to visit, we weren't sure if we could schedule a time in the near future, due to our work schedules. but after working some things out, we were able to plan a trip for late september. i swear, once september first came along, our trip was all i could think about. well, just about.

wednesday evening phillip and i made our way to logan airport. i was a nervous wreck since the last time i was on a plane was almost 20 years ago. i was more nervous about getting our tickets printed and then making our way through security than anything else. we took the train to logan, and then we hopped on the shuttle to our terminal. we flew out of northwest airlines.




when we got to the terminal, we had about an hour and a half to wait. i took a walk around and bought the new daily show with jon stewart book america (the book). it's hysterical and completely irreverent. i love it. anyway, we passed the time by talking and taking pictures.









once we got on the plane, i was still a bit nervous. phillip let me sit by the window, which was so nice of him.



it seemed like forever before we took off. we were sitting on the runway for at least a half hour. once the plane started moving and getting read for takeoff, i squeezed phillip's hand as tight as i could and i had to shut my eyes. but once we were in the air, everything was okay. the flight was serving food, but it was sold out before it even made it halfway through coach. so we ate the little bag of pretzels and drank some soda.

i tried to nap, but i was just too excited to sleep. at 8:30, we landed at the st. paul/minneapolis airport. we made our way through the terminal to meet phillip's mom and her husband don.




phillip's mom was so excited to see him, she gave him a big hug. i thought that was just so cute. we all talked for a little while and then we made our way to the car. we stuffed our bags in the back and then made our way to phillip's grandmother's house. she's a sweet woman who was also happy to see phillip. she offered us drinks and mixed nuts. we talked with her a while, and at about 10:00 we left minneapolis for phillip's mom's house in river falls, wisconsin.

the ride was nice, but i had a hard time hearing everyone. my ears were plugged from the plane ride. they were fine while we were in the air, but they started to feel all fuzzy and began to hurt when we were landing. i kept hoping they would pop, but they never did.

on the ride to their house, i found out that mimi and don have a cat named sophie. as you may or may not know, i am very allergic to cats. i didn't bring my medication because phillip had told me that his mom only had a bird. so i was so nervous that i was going to have an asthma attack and have to go to the hospital, but i can happily say that sophie didn't bother me at all.

phillip, mimi, don, and i talked for a while in the living room about work and stuff, and they seemed to be pretty impressed that i work where i work. it's too bad that it isn't as glamorous as one may think. that's ok though. i played along ;) at about midnight or so, phillip and i decided we had to go to sleep. but before we got into bed, we took a nice bath in their big jacuzzi tub. it was so nice and it felt so relaxing. i slept really well the first night we were there. i thought i would have trouble, since it was a new place and the thought of the cat coming down the stairs and sitting on my head in the middle of the night was kind of scary. but we slept well, and woke up the next morning at 10:00 or so.

Wisconsin: Day 1

phillip and i woke up at about 10am, and his mom and don were already awake. she made phillip some tea and me some yummy cappucino. we had blueberry bread and banana/chocolate bread for breakfast. it was so good. i love home made goodies.



i let phillip pet sophie, but he had to make sure that he washed his hands right after. i'm seriously that allergic. she's such a beautiful cat though. mimi has had her for 15 years. i wanted to pick her up and snuggle with her, but i knew that if i did that i would be at the ER faster than you can say "ER".




phillip and i talked and decided we would take a walk downtown to check things out. he told me that river falls was pretty small, but believe it or not, it's larger than the town where i grew up. we make our way down to main street, passing this neat bridge that crosses a river. i'm not sure which one it was, but i know it wasn't the mississippi. that's another cool thing...i'd never seen the mississippi river in my life, but i got to see it on this trip.


when we were down town, we peeked into a bunch of bars and made mental notes of which ones we wanted to check out while we were there. don had told us which ones were "dangerous" and which ones we should stay out of. of course, those were the ones that phillip and i would go to first. we're rebels, i tell ya! we walked up and down main street, and phillip let me go into this cute little store that sold hand made candles and crafts. he also let me go to the craft store (*gasp!*). i didn't buy anything, but it was nice to look around.

we made our way back to phillip's mom's house, and on the way we got lost. but it was a nice walk, even though i was wearing bad shoes for the walk. there are huge mushrooms that grow on the lawns out there. we saw a ton of them



we were able to take a little nap before lisa, brent's wife came to pick us up. (brent is phillip's older brother, if i haven't mentioned that before.) she is really sweet and easy to talk to. we got a tour of their house and watched a little TV before heading to the ellsworth creamery. they were making cheese curds as we stood there. i was able to pick up a post card of the creamery to have a souvenir



lisa checks out the diary case and grabs a ton if cheese. there's so much to choose from!


i was in cheese heaven. i was asking phillip if he had to know any of these cheeses at his work. sadly, he doesn't ;)


on the way back to lisa and brent's house, they took us for a little drive. it was so peaceful and pretty. there were fields of corn and fields of soy beans as far as you could see. and there were tons of farms all around as well. we drove to a lake near where brent used to live. it was about to start pouring, so we got out real quick and snapped a few photos. i don't know why i was holding my pants up. it wasn't wet or anything.




this is one of my favorite pictures of phillip.



when we got back to lisa and brent's house, we waited for mimi and don to arrive for dinner. phillip snapped this picture as we were going into the house, after the rain had stopped for a bit.



lisa made an awesome dinner of kebabs and this awesome yummy spinach salad with strawberries and a sweet vinegarette dressing. of course, before dinner she made a ton of fried cheese curds! those were so good. she used the curds that we had just bought at the creamery. here are some pictures from dinner:

that's don, wearing the harvard t-shirt i bought him







after dinner, mimi wanted to take some pictures of her two sons, since they haven't been together in the same room in a very long time. so i took some good ones. phillipa nd brent are total opposites. and i mean, polar opposites.

and i like this picture because phillip looks like he's up to something



mimi wanted a picture of the four of us, we we took some for her as well



phillip and had everyone watch survivor with us. it was fun. we didn't know that mimi and don watched it every week too. we got lisa hooked, and i bet her that she will watch it this thursday. at one point, phillip made a comment about rory being the token black guy on the show, and lisa's son jordan said "what are you talking about?" phillip said "nothing..." and jordan said "well, if it's about sex and stuff, i already know all about that." he then went on to ask phillip about viagra. phillip said "i'll talk to you about that when you get older."


i thought that was the funniest dad-like response i've ever heard out if him. by the way, jordan is in sixth grade. i think he looks like a little michael moore:



jordan was really upset because their kitty had escaped and he thought he was lost for good. but they found the kitty up in a tree in their back yard. man, i've never seen such a relieved 11 year old.



we went back to mimi and don's house and watched some of the red sox game. the ESPN out there cut off the game, so we didn't get to see the final inning. we were pretty bummed out. the sox ended up losing anyway, but i would have liked to see them! we went to bed pretty early, and slept in the next day. sleeping in feels so good. especially next to the one you love!

Wisconsin: Day 2

we woke up to a dreary, rainy day. mimi made us delicious blueberry pancakes. i sure do miss home cooked things. they were so yummy. we drank cappuccino and tea and read the news paper. after breakfast, mimi, phillip and i went to target. i found the cutest halloween plastic glasses. one has pumpkins on it, and one has bats on it. i wanted to take a photo of them, but the batter ran out on the camera. i also got cute halloween stickers and well as a cute top. actually, mimi was generous enough to buy these things for me. she really didn't have to, but i appreciate it.

after target, we went to the home depot. mimi was looking for some things to buy her nephew (i think) for his wedding. i love the home depot. there are so many things to look at and play with. phillip liked how i was playing with the power tools. the home depot is just so much fun. i like the wall paper and paint section the best. i had fun ringing the doorbells too. we found all the stuff that mimi needed, so we went to the check out and then left.

we went to the movies next. we saw sky captain & the world of tomorrow. it was cute. not up there on the best movies list, but it was fun. mimi seemed to like it a lot, which is always good. and i thought it was awesome that it was only $5 to get in! you can't find that in boston.

the rest of the day had us lounging around and watching TV. mimi made a yummy dinner of chicken, potatoes, and green beans from her garden. we all sat and ate and talked. it was nice. after dinner, we played scrabble and sadly, mimi kicked my ass. i haven't played it since i was a kid with my grannie. i tried to get phillip to play, but he wasn't interested. oh well. maybe next time.

at about 10:00, phillip and i decided to walk down town and do some bar hopping. we decided to go to a place called "ground zero" first. man, that place totally reminded me of the bars i went to when i was in college. the ratio of men to women was about 10:1, and the women who were there were there to get loaded and hopefully stumble home with one of the guys. there was no cover charge to get in, and the malibu and coke that i got was enormous. seriously, it was in one of those super duper hefty cups:


they were playing music that was popular about 4 years ago, and all the guys were singing along. i'm not sure if they thought they looked cool, or if that's the way they do it in the midwest ;) we had to be sneaky when taking pictures of the locals.



i thought the funniest thing in this bar was not only the fact that the majority of the guys were wearing baseball caps, but that the walls of the bar were lined with dollar bills. on each dollar bill, there was a message written on it. many of them said "SHEILA!" or "PACKERS RULE!", but here's one that upset me. you can't see it all that well, so i added text for you:



seriously. it says "hockey is for fags". a little ironic, coming from people who live to watch grown men in tight uniforms, bent over with their faces this close to another guy's crack, slap each other on the ass when they score a touchdown. because football is probably the most homo-erotic sport out there, second to wrestling. oh the irony!

the next bar we went to was called "bo's and mine". it was more upscale than the other one. we ordered a drink, and this one wasn't as large as the last bar, but just as strong. we took more sneaky pictures.








the next bar was called "club kaos". or "klub kaos"...i'm not sure the spelling. anyway, it was a strange place. it was redneck upfront, and hip hop in the back. they were playing def leppard in the front and 50 cent in the back. so bizarre. so we sat and had a drink and took more sneaky photos












the last bar we stopped at was called "corner saloon". we only stopped in because we heard this bad band covering pearl jam hits. thank god none of these places had a cover charge. we listened to them sing "once" and then left. but we snapped this picture on the way out.



p and i stumbled home. by this time i was pretty drunk. we had 3 drinks each in the course of about an hour. for me, that's a LOT. especially since the drinks were so huge and strong. and the best part of it all? we went donw town with $20 and came home with $1! you couldn't do that in boston. gotta love the cheap drinks and no cover charge. we walked back to mimi's house in the dark. it was fun. phillip and i went to bed almost right away. i slept like a log!

Wisconsin: Day 3

saturday was a beautiful day. p and i woke up, had a quick breakfast, and decided to go downtown again to do some shopping. i wore my new top that mimi got me at target. actually. phillip picked it out. it looks good on me, so he's got good taste.



i took another photo of phillip by that cool bridge:




we walked around town, and we went to this used clothing store that reminded me of urban renewals, only this place smelled a whole lot better. there were some cool furniture and other items for sale, that i probably would have bought if i had a house and it was in wisconsin ;) phillip looked around for halloween stuff, but didn't find anything he liked. i tried to get him to put the mask on, but he wouldn't ;)he's just too cute.



there is green bay packers stuff everywhere! we had to take pictures. the first one is in the used clothing store. the second one is a store front that only has packers stuff in the window. phillip said he was a vikings fan growing up, just to be different. have i mentioned how adorable he is??






we went into a used video game store so phillip could look through the games to see if there were any he liked



while he did that, i marvelled at the amount of beanie babies they had for sale. now, this was not the only store that had them. they were everywhere! i didn't even know that beanie babies were still being made!



and i had to take a picture of the garfield beanie. he looks like he's been smoking a few too many doobies


i also bought a cute mug that says "river falls, wi" on it. when we got back to the house, i showed don. he liked it too.






the big family cookout was saturday night. everyone was so excited about me trying bratwurst. i'd never had it before. i guess mimi marinates the sausages in beer for a while before cooking them. so we all sat around and waited for the brats to soak. it was a beautiful day. don likes to hang out in his shorts most of the day. he's a man who doesn't like to wear clothes ;)




phillip took advantage of the hammock that's in the back yard. he looks so comfy:





by mim's herb garden is the pet cemetery. phillip told me how whenever they buried a pet, mimi would read a poem and sing a song. man, i wish i had a mom like mimi. so i told her on saturday that she's my new mom. she agreed. i'm happy.




brent, lisa and her kids, jason (don's son) and his kids came over for the cookout. it was a lot of fun, and i loved my first bratwurst. i wish mimi was here right now to make more for us. they were so delicious!














phillip and i went downstairs to nap after dinner when we heard mimi tell phillip to come quick with his camera. so we went to see what was going on, and there was a little bat hanging out on the umbrella. no one knows how he got there and he just stayed there till it got dark:




everyone was saying how they are glad i'm not like phillip's ex. she would have had mimi get her a cage in order to capture the bat and claim it as her pet. they all agreed that she's nuts. we just left the bat alone, and we are sure that he got back to wherever he was going when he was done hanging out under the umbrella. it was still pretty cool to see him hanging there though.

after we said goodbye to brent and lisa and to jason and his kids, we watched some tv. at 8:30 mimi drove us to dairy queen. i was so happy! i haven't been to dairy queen since i was about 15. we got ice cream and ate it on our way to the movie theater. we went to the only cinema in town that was showing the manchurian candidate. there was a kid at the booth selling tickets. i said "what are you doing working here! you're, what? six years old??" and he said, very matter of factly, "i'm seven". so he let me take his picture, but not before phillip told him to give the "thumbs up"!



the movie was ok. i never saw the original, so i can't compare. there was a couple sitting behind us that was talking the entire time. finally, phillip turned around and shusshed them. i heard the guy say "well, excuse us!". how lame is that? you don't talk through a movie, especially when you're in a theater! duh.

after the movie, we ventured back to the "ground zero" bar, but we were just not feeling it. so we walked across the bridge and called mimi to pick us up. that was so nice of her, and i thought it was cute how she was driving without her shoes on. i used to do that all the time.

phillip and i did some laundry so we wouldn't have to do it when we got back to boston. we went to bed shortly after the clothes went in the dryer. i was feeling sniffly and kind of achy. phillip stayed up and watched TV for a while. i fell asleep right away, but woke up with a start when the dryer buzzer went off. heh. but then i slept through the night.